It depends on the place. There is a place I go to in Berlin sometimes where if you show up, they'll ask you what you want once, and never again, and they'll leave the cup on your table until you re-order through your own initiative.
This is a very nice system that I'm sure they do to attract laptop people during the day (it's otherwise always at least half empty during that time).
There is a sign on the wall that kindly tells people to put away the laptop after 21:00 which is when they get busy. I think it's a fair deal. You get office space for the price of a coffee and they get someone in an otherwise empty café during the day. (Who often order a bit more than just a coffee anyway).
I think it's plausible. That list of jobs was probably just a hyperbolic account of his student years. He may have studied CS, and then got a job somewhere, moved to WFH, and realised there he could cheat. You would get found out in a serious work environment but there are many places where you can get away with it.
ok so - hyperbolic means basically you shouldn't completely trust the Guardian in this story about someone you completely shouldn't trust. It has a nice symmetry to it I guess.
I've been doing this for a year or so now. I gave up my apartment, and have been driving around Europe, staying in various Airbnbs. The cost is much lower than I would've paid if I stayed in Amsterdam. This is because I can stay in cheaper countries, but also because I am not paying rent when I go on a holiday, go to my family for Christmas, and so on. I am not lacking any stuff, because I can leave some clothes in the back of my car while I keep the rest in a large suitcase / backpack combination.
The biggest downsides so far are:
1. Periods of loneliness. I don't mind this too much as I can just use the time to work on interesting personal projects. And I make my trips coincide with friends traveling there too, or already living there.
2. As some have stated here: your own bed is better. The biggest problem I have so far is that some airbnbs don't have proper curtains so I am wide awake at 6 am. A quality sleepmask works wonders here.
3. A lack of a proper place to work from. Often airbnbs will list a desk when in reality it's a shitty table with a bad chair. But this has been much better since COVID restrictions lifted and I have a list of good libraries to work from.
The upsides are amazing, and not really worth listing because I think these should be kind of 'obvious' to you if you were to consider such a lifestyle to begin with. One thing I will note here is that there is something amazing about closing your laptop after a good stint of work and walking straight into the most beautiful nature, or an amazing local restaurant.
EDIT: I get that the article is kind of pushing this as a money-saving trick to live in the same area. I think it's probably not worth it for that purpose. But if you care to do so then downsides 2/3 above may still apply.
This is a very nice system that I'm sure they do to attract laptop people during the day (it's otherwise always at least half empty during that time).
There is a sign on the wall that kindly tells people to put away the laptop after 21:00 which is when they get busy. I think it's a fair deal. You get office space for the price of a coffee and they get someone in an otherwise empty café during the day. (Who often order a bit more than just a coffee anyway).